Slobodamnation

The dictionary defines hypocrisy as a semblance of having publicly approved attitudes or principles that one does not actually possess. If you're looking for a synonym, it's the chorus of self-congratulations that greeted the news of Slobodan Milosevic's extradition two weeks ago. Milosevic has been made out to be as nasty a tyrant and schemer as there is, but it's all a creation of the International Criminal Tribunal for the former Yugoslavia-i.e., it's pure unadulterated bullshit. In fact, I'll go even further. Milosevic deserves respect and admiration for his defiant demeanor before the kangaroo court in the Hague.

Slobo is right not to recognize such a court. The Hague court is nothing more than an arbitrary creation of the bogus "international community," which is a precursor to Big Brother, the One World Government of the future. Make no mistake about it, dear readers, this is just the beginning of a plan for powerful governments such as that of the United States and its satellites to kidnap and bring to trial anyone thought to be an impediment. The most bitter joke of all is that Milosevic's arrest was achieved by bribery, one billion greenbacks worth of aid to repair the damage done to Serbia by the so-called international community's own war machine.

For the last decade we were fed a litany of lies by the crooks that led us on about the causes of the savage ethnic bloodletting in the Balkans. These are ancient hatreds based on different religions and cultures. The conflicts started in Croatia and Slovenia in 1991, spread to Bosnia in 1992, and to Kosovo in 1998 and 1999. Now they're threatening Macedonia. The total number of dead after 10 years of war stands at up to 300,000, fewer than the Rwandans managed to kill in a year and a little more than one tenth of the Vietnamese the United States managed to kill in 10 years. Milosevic was demonized early on by a know-nothing media because he was a Serb-Orthodox nationalist who believed in continuing Tito's creation of a Serb-led Yugoslavian federation. Of course, he didn't do what they said he did single-handedly. Franjo Tudjman of Croatia was more ruthless by far. So were a variety of warlords and black marketeers who ruled by the gun and exploited the people they pretended to protect. The Albanian gangster organization which goes by the name of the KLA was originally financed and protected by the United States, the short-sightedness of Uncle Sam here reminiscent of that other conflict in Afghanistan. The biggest single ethnic cleansing of the Balkan wars was suffered by the Serbs in the Krajina region of Croatia, but no one is about to be arrested for that one. Which brings me to the point I'm trying to make.

Selective justice-like justice delayed-is victor's justice. To the media and the public, Slobodan Milosevic is a man with blood on his hands. He has been refused the presumption of innocence to which he's entitled. The International Criminal Tribunal for the former Yugoslavia was set up by the United Nations, as corrupt an institution as there is, and because it's an expensive undertaking, the UN demands a return on its investment. An acquittal simply won't do. A busybody like Kenneth Roth, executive director of Human Rights Watch-read selective human rights watch-claims that the arrest of Milosevic is a momentous occasion for Milosevic's victims to see justice done. What bullshit. Tragically, it is too late for Milosevic's victims. Nothing will bring them back, so why not stop the bullshit. And what about Serb victims? In Kosovo, for example, Serbian forces were undoubtedly guilty of sporadic attrocities in 1998, but it was the KLA's original violence that had provoked them. No KLA murderer has been or will be brought to justice. Above all, it was NATO's attack on Serbia on March 24,1999 that sparked the real violence against the Albanians.

During the bombing campaign about 500 civilians were killed by NATO. Some were killed when Serbian television in Belgrade was targeted, others died when a Belgrade hospital was hit. These acts amount to war crimes because NATO did not secure UN approval for its actions. Or is it that a Croat's life, or an Albanian's or a Muslim Bosnian's is worth much more than a Serb's? Slobo's trial is the best political theater the West can produce. Everybody knows that NATO will not do to Moscow what it did to Belgrade because Moscow has a few nuclear weapons up its sleeve. Beijing tortures Falun Gong members to death, executes petty criminals and sells their vital organs, shoots down student protesters. Is NATO about to do to Beijing what it did to Belgrade? Robert Mugabe, the Zimbabwean dictator, instructed a battalion of troops trained by North Korea to murder and pillage in Matabeleland in the mid-80s. Is the Hague court about to arrest him and try him? And what about Ariel Sharon? He was as involved in the Sabra and Shatila massacre of Palestinian women and children as Milosevic was in the Kosovo massacres by Serb troops. Will Sharon visit the Hague anytime soon? Will Clinton and Albright appear there for bombing innocent civilians in Serbia? In the Sudan and in Afghanistan?

Let's face it. A World Tribunal beyond political control, operating under abstract principles, is far worse than any crime allegedly committed by Milosevic. Incidentally, Putin's crimes in Chechnya are virtually identical to those of Milosevic's in Bosnia. The idea of a World Tribunal is as phony as the politicians who thought it up. And all it will do is confirm to many of us in the West-and almost everyone in the Balkans-that Uncle Sam is a busybody bully that's now looking to justify its bombing of a small impoverished country for three months from 15,000 feet.